


monster

by narcissacronin



Category: Renegades - Marissa Meyer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:41:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22022734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narcissacronin/pseuds/narcissacronin
Summary: nova is revealed as nightmare in renegades hq
Kudos: 18





	monster

Anger blazed in Adrian’s eyes. He stood in front of Nova, fists clenched at his side. She wanted to shrink away, to hide. Never before had she seen him so mad.

Nova waited with bated breath, terrified of what was next to come. The handcuffs on her wrists were biting into her skin and she wished to be free of them. But it didn’t look like that’d happen any time soon.

Her hood fell back, and he leaned forward, ripping the mask off her face. The sound of metal hitting tile reverberated throughout the lobby as he dropped the mask. The sound sent chills up her spine.

Shock mixed with the anger in his expression. Gasps emerged from the crowd, everyone’s expression a mixture of horror and surprise. Nova wanted nothing more than to cower away from their judgemental stares.

“Nova? You...you’re Nightmare?” he stammered, his voice cracking on the last syllable.

Nova nodded slowly. “I—I’m Nightmare,” she said, her voice barely above a breath. It was all she was able to say, struggling to find her voice. In truth, Nova wanted to scream out that she was Nightmare, and she was tired of hiding. But every time she tried to speak, her voice warbled and her words fell flat. Eventually, she gave up trying.

Slowly, he leaned down and picked up her mask off the ground, acting as if he hadn’t just been the one to remove it. He held it in front of him, staring at it with a look of disbelief and what may have been horror.

Oscar and Ruby moved to the front of the crowd, watching the scene unfold, their mouths hanging open in disbelief.

The Council had ordered for her presence to be kept secret and for her to be taken straight to a temporary holding cell—mainly Adrian's dads not wanting him to know Nightmare was in their custody. But when they brought her in, Adrian and his team, minus Danna, had just stepped off the elevator. Word spread fast and soon a crowd started to accumulate around them.

A dozen different apologies and explanations sprung to the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t bring herself to say any of them aloud. Nova tried desperately to make words form. To scream. To say anything at all. But, still, nothing came out.

Adrian huffed and turned on his heel, still gripping the mask in his fist. He disappeared into the crowd, not once looking over his shoulder at her.

“I’m sorry,” she finally managed to say, her voice coming out no louder than a whisper. The sound was drowned out by the chatter of the crowd that had started up again.

Nova did a quick sweep of the room. She spotted Oscar and Ruby still standing on the edge of the crowd and her gaze lingered over them for a few seconds. They seemed to notice her staring as they shook their heads, glaring, before disappearing in the crowd after Adrian.

Nova tried to shake them off, telling herself that it didn't bother her.

But it  _ did _ .

No matter how much she didn't want it to. They were the closest things she had to real friends. When she first joined the Renegades, Nova had never expected to make friendships or grow close to any of them. But the longer she spent in their ranks, the closer she grew to them. It had been naïve of her to think she could get by without forming an emotional connection.

“I never meant to hurt you,” Nova whispered, her voice hoarse. It felt like everyone was staring at and talking about her. Soon the feeling became overwhelming and she dropped her gaze to her feet, trying to block everything out.

The world around her blurred as her eyes filled with tears. Which she vainly tried to blink away but to no avail. All noise turned to static. Distantly, she could hear someone yelling for everyone to return to what they were doing before, trying to clear a path to the elevator. Her legs felt like they were filled with lead as she was pushed towards the elevator. Nova was loaded onto the elevator and taken to the floor that held the cells. The guard led her out, taking her to a cell. She didn’t say anything as they locked her in. They told her that someone should be up soon to take her in for interrogation.

Nova leaned against the wall, defeated. She sunk to the ground and buried her face in her hands.

An hour passed, and another. Still, nobody came. She shrank even closer to the wall, wishing to disappear.

Nova wasn’t sure how long she’d been in there when someone cleared their throat from the outside of her cell. She slowly lifted her head, shocked to find Adrian standing there.

Adrian awkwardly glanced around before taking a small step closer. Something about him seemed calmer, like his anger from earlier had disappeared.

Nova held her breath, trying to prepare herself for whatever it was he about to say.

* * *

_ I’m Nightmare. _

Those two simple words kept replaying over and over in his head.

Except they  _ weren’t  _ simple.

They were some of the worst words he’d ever heard in his life. Up there with receiving the news of his mother’s death, and when the doctors told his fathers they weren’t sure if Max would make a full recovery.

Tears pricked his eyes as he glanced one last time at her. Nova was huddled in the corner of the cell, arms wrapped around her legs, head resting on her knees. She looked so much smaller than usual.

So defeated.

So alone.

Part of him longed to reach out to her and tell her everything would be okay. That he understood. After all, she wasn’t the only one with a secret identity.

But a small voice in the back of Adrian’s head whispered to him saying that she was his enemy and he should stay far, far away from her.

Though no matter how loud that voice got, he couldn’t bring himself to despise her. In fact, he felt the opposite. Adrian was almost completely sure that he started to  _ love _ her.

Then came all the memories of how Nightmare had wronged his family. From attempting to assassinate his dad to stabbing Max. Adrian couldn’t quite wrap his head around the fact that they were the same person.

Nightmare and Nova McLain were too different. While Nova was sarcastic and cold at times, she still had a caring personality deep down. But Nightmare... Nightmare...

“Why did you do that to Max?” Adrian asked, the words falling from his mouth before he had a chance to think them over.

Nova flinched. She was silent a few moments, her gaze on the ground. Finally, she whispered, “I didn’t do it. It was Frostbite.”

Adrian leaned against the wall opposite her cell, brow furrowed. “No, that—that can’t be. Genissa may be a bit mean-spirited at times, but she’d never...she’d never—”

“She wasn’t trying to hit Max. She was trying to hit me.” Nova’s voice was filled venom as she said this, a flurry of anger passing over her features.

“Are you sure?” He paused, uncertainty clouding his thoughts. “How do I know you’re not lying?

“Do you really think I’d hurt Max? Is that what you think of me?” She looked up at him, her expression pained. A single tear rolled down her cheek, but she quickly blinked before any more could fall. “That I’m just some ruthless killing machine?” Soon anger overtook her once again. “Well, I have news for you, Everhart. I’m only the way I am because your dad failed to deliver on a promise he made to my father.”

“Nova, I—”

“Don’t. I don’t want to talk about it. If you really want to know, why don’t you go ask Captain Chromium about David Artino,  _ my father _ .”

“I— That’s not why I’m here.”

“What are you here for, then? Don’t you think you’ve done enough damage, Adrian?”

Adrian grimaced, though he quickly tried to cover it. Clearing his throat, he began with as steady of a voice as he could manage, “I just want answers. I already asked about Max, but I want to know about my mother.” Nova started to speak, but Adrian continued. “At the parade, Ni— you said ‘One cannot be brave who has no fear’, which was the phrase found on a notecard on my mother’s body.” He hesitated. “Do you know who killed her?”

“No, but I have a question for you now. How do you know that I said that? None of the others were around, only the Sentinel. Unless of course,  _ you’re _ the Sentinel, which is absurd. There is no way you could have done any of that—” Nova sighed, scrutinizing him. “You’re the Sentinel, aren’t you? Of  _ course _ you are. Oh, this day just keeps getting worse and worse.”

Adrian nodded, unable to speak. He rolled up his sleeve, revealing the flame tattoo. “I gave myself tattoos. One for each power.”

Nova merely nodded, letting out a soft, “Huh.” After a few moments, she said, “Looks like I’m not the only one with a secret identity.”

“But at least I’m doing  _ good _ with the Sentinel, unlike you,” he said, his blood boiling. “Every time Nightmare pops up, something is destroyed or goes wrong.”

She stood, stepping up to the door of her cell. Setting her hands on the bars, she glared at him. “Might I remind you that the Sentinel burned Danna at the parade, is responsible for Hawthorn’s death,  _ and _ is on the Council’s most-wanted list. So don’t act like you’re not at fault.”

“I didn’t kill Hawthorn. It was Frostbite’s team. And I didn’t mean to burn Danna, I was aiming...I was aiming for...Nightmare. For you.”

A soft “Oh,” was all Nova said, backing away from the cell door. She backed up to the wall farthest from him, sinking against it. After a few moments, Nova looked up at him and said, “Adrian, just go. I don’t want to see you right now.”

Adrian gulped and waited a few seconds, some strange part of him hoping she’d change her mind. Instead, she only buried her head in her hands, completely ignoring him.

He glanced at her once more before heading towards the elevator, struggling to hold back tears. Still, the scene kept replaying over and over in his head.

“Why’d it have to be her?” he whispered to himself, boarding the elevator. Tears streamed down his cheeks and he made no effort to hide them.


End file.
